Dinosaur Hideout (18 page)

The room was jammed. A group of Daniel’s schoolmates surrounded him and Pederson. At the back of the crowd, a handful of parents, including Daniel’s and Jed’s, stood with photographers and newspaper reporters from the local paper and all over the province. One Regina television crew, another from Swift Current, and a third from Medicine Hat were also taping the grand opening of the centre.

Daniel felt his heart expanding as Pederson explained the exhibit. “This is also the first hadrosaur-type skull to be discovered,” he said proudly, pointing to the skull.

Then he explained, “The hadrosaur was the first American dinosaur to be described, and the first nearly complete skeleton found. It was discovered in 1858 in New Jersey in the United States, but it was skull-less, although hundreds of teeth were found.”

Pederson guided them over to a highlighted display of a replicated nest with the baby skeleton.

“And so, you see, the Edmontosauruses appear to have been highly social creatures. They probably travelled in herds and seem to have laid eggs in communal nests. That means that several females dropped their eggs in the same nests.”

He directed them to take a closer look at the diorama of his dig, where he described how he had located the nest.

“This is the first conclusive evidence of nests and eggs of this particular species,” he said, “although there have been a couple of other types of hadrosaurs found elsewhere in North America – in Alberta and Montana to be precise.”

The group of students broke out into excited conversation.

“Mr. Pederson, doesn’t that mean that the information in most museums will have to be updated?” Jed asked loudly over the noisy crowd.

“Yes, it does, young man,” Pederson nodded. “New discoveries are always challenging our assumptions in the world of paleontology.”

“And this also means the books have to be rewritten,” Daniel spoke up.

“Indeed it does, Daniel. So others can say they ‘saw it in a book’ too.” Pederson winked at him.

Daniel’s parents had moved up beside him. He felt Dad’s arm squeeze his shoulder, and Mom gave him a hug. He gazed out over the crowd of classmates and noticed Brett and Wade staring attentively and in respectful awe of Pederson. About time – calling him a murderer!

“There are many more explorations to conduct, and we don’t know what else may be out there,” Pederson said. “It takes a great deal of enthusiasm and dedication, like young Daniel here has, to unearth these irreplaceable relics of an extinct species.” Pederson smiled at him. “And I’m sure he’ll make some great discoveries of his own someday.”

Daniel smiled and squeezed the lucky receptaculites fossil in his pocket. He hadn’t turned it in to be put on display. It was private. In fact, he still had a few interesting stones stashed in his secret hideout. And
that
was definitely going to stay off limits!

Bibliography

Reid, Monty,
The Last Great Dinosaurs: An illustrated Guide to Alberta’s Dinosaurs,
Red Deer College Press, Red Deer, Alberta, 1990,
ISBN
: 0-88995-055-5.

Stewart, Janet,
The Dinosaurs: A New Discovery,
Hayes Publishing Ltd., Burlington, Ontario, 1989, ISBN: 0-88625-235-0.

Storer, Dr. John,
Geological History of Saskatchewan,
Saskatchewan Museum of Natural History, Government of Saskatchewan, 1989.

Wallace, Joseph,
The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaur,
Michael Friedman Publishing Group, Inc., New York, N.Y., 1987,
ISBN
: 0-8317-2368-8.

url: http://www.enchantedlearn
ing.com

Vocabulary/Descriptions

T
he paleontological material found throughout this novel comes mostly from the Cretaceous period. A brief description of some of the terms used follows, with their pronunciations. The Frenchman Valley, where this story takes place, is located in the southwest and central areas of Saskatchewan.

coprolite:
(KOWP-ruh-lyte)
(“dung stone”):

Coprolite is fossilized feces (animal waste). The term coprolite was coined around 1830, when the earliest-known specimens were found. They are quite common now.

cretaceous period
(cree-TAY-shush):

The Cretaceous period lasted from about 146 to 65 million years ago. Flowering plants and trees made their first widespread appearance, creating bright beautiful landscapes with their reds, yellows, and purples. Before that time, the browns and greens of trees and ferns were contrasted only by the blues of the skies and seas. The Cretaceous period was the latter part of the Mesozoic era, when great creatures roamed the land and pterosaurs, huge flying creatures, ruled the skies. A variety of small creatures also populated the earth and seas. The climate was tropical all year round.

note:
Creta is the Latin word for chalk. The Cretaceous period is named for chalky rock from southeastern England that was the first Cretaceous period sediment studied.

crinoids
(crin-OIDS):

A lily-shaped or star-shaped marine animal, usually sedentary with feathery arms.

edmontosaurus
(ed-MON-toh-SAWR-us):

A large plant-eating member of the duckbill dinosaurs, or hadrosaurs, that lived from about 73 to 65 million years ago during the Cretaceous period in western North America. With 800 to 1600 teeth crowded together along the side of the huge jaws, they were able to eat tough leaves and other vegetation. This flat-headed duckbill grew to 13 metres (42 feet) long, 3 metres (9 feet) tall at the hips, and weighed from 3200 to 3600 kilograms (7000 to 8000 pounds). Edmontosaurus was a slow-moving dinosaur with few defences, but its keen senses may have helped it to avoid predators in its swampy habitat.

hadrosaur
(HAD-roh-SAWR)
(“bulky lizard”):

The hadrosaurs were a group of duck-billed dinosaurs that ranged in size from 3 to 12 metres (10 to 40 feet) long and lived in the late Cretaceous period. They appear to have been highly social creatures, laying eggs in nests communally, travelling and even migrating in herds. Similar in body-build, the main difference between hadrosaur species was in the shape and size of the crest on their heads. In Alberta alone, remains from twelve different hadrosaur species have been discovered. Nests with eggs have been found in both Alberta and Montana.

mosasaur
(MOES-ah-SAWR):

Mosasaurs were giant, snakelike marine reptiles that extended from 12.5 to 17.6 metres (40 to 59 feet) long. They were not dinosaurs, but were related to snakes and monitor lizards. Powerful swimmers, mosasaurs had adapted to living in shallow seas, and breathed air. These carnivores were a short-lived line of reptiles that went extinct during the k-t extinction, some 65 million years ago.

paleontology
(PAY-lee-on-TALL-o-gee):

Paleontology is the branch of geology that deals with prehistoric forms of life through the study of plant and animal fossils.

pterodactyls
(ter-oh-DAK-tils)
(“winged finger”):

Pterodactyls were flying prehistoric reptiles of the pterosaur family. They had wingspans that spread up to 6 metres (20 feet), made up of skin stretched along the body between the hind limb and a very long fourth digit of the forelimb.

receptaculites
(ree-sep-TACK-you-light-EEZE):

Referred to as the “sunflower coral” from 450 million years ago. At one time, it was thought to be a sponge. In more recent times, receptaculites are considered to be sponge-like, rather than true sponges. They are commonly found as flattened stones with a pattern of criss-cross lines like the head of a ripe sunflower.

sponges:

Also called poriferans, sponges are very simple animals that live permanently attached to one location in the water. There are from 5,000 to 10,000 known species. Most sponges live in salt water – only about 150 species thrive in fresh water. Sponges evolved over 500 million years ago.

stromatolites
(strow- MAT-o-LIGHT-ees):

Mounds built up of layers of green algae and trapped sediment.

tyrannosaurus rex
(tie-RAN-o-SAWR-us rex):

The tyrannosaurus rex is also known as the “Tyrant lizard king”. A carnivore (meat-eater) that ate large dinosaurs like the triceratops, it was 12.4 metres (40 feet) long, 4.6 to 6 metres (15 to 20 feet) tall, and weighed 5 to 7 tonnes. It lived during the late Cretaceous period, from about 85 to 65 million years ago. Tyrannosaurus rex’s arms were only about 1 metre (3 feet) long, and it had two-fingered hands. T-rex had cone-shaped, serrated teeth that were continually replaced. The first Tyrannosaurus rex fossil was discovered by the famous fossil hunter Barnum Brown in 1902. Only about 30 Tyrannosaurus fossils have been found, mostly in the western part of the United States. The Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton in Saskatchewan was found in 1994, at Eastend, and was excavated by the Royal Saskatchewan Museum.

royal saskatchewan museum fossil research station:

In 1994, the rsm began the excavation of what was then only the thirteenth-known partial skeleton of the carnivorous dinosaur Tyrannosaurus rex, now affectionately called Scotty. This project led to the establishment of a fossil research station in Eastend in 1995. The rsm’s activities there focus on paleontological field research and collecting, the separation of fossils from their rock matrix in the laboratory, and ongoing research to better understand Saskatchewan’s fossil history.

Acknowledgements:

S
pecial thanks to Alison Lohans for helping me achieve the life of the story, and to Dianne Warren who saw the potential. I am most grateful to my editor, Joanne Gerber, for her insights that enriched the essence, and without whose skill this book would not have reached its present form.

Thanks also to: Ervin Fehr for the initial idea and inspiration; Harold Bryant, Curator of Earth Sciences, Royal Saskatchewan Museum, for his expert advice; The Children’s Writers Round Robin group in Saskatchewan for their encouragement; Linda McDowell for first taking me to the t-rex excavation site; and others along the way who have influenced, inspired, and informed.

nb: The paleontological information in this book has been derived from a wide variety of written and pictorial sources. Although I have done my best to create an accurate picture, this remains a work of fiction, and there is no claim to total academic authenticity. New discoveries constantly change what scientists know about the world of dinosaurs.

About the Author

J
udith Silverthorne
is the author of two books, including a juvenile novel
The Secret of Sentinel Rock
for which she won the 1996 Saskatchewan Book Award for Children's Literature.
She has also worked as an editor, curator,
and a television documentary producer, as well as serving as the Executive Director for the Saskatchewan Library Association. She currently lives in Regina.